76 THE HAWKS AND OWLS OP THE UNITED STATES. 



large species of QHdipoda, though a few belonged to the genuvS Galop- 

 tenus. 



"Assuming that each hawk captured 200 grasshoppers a day and 

 that there were 200 hawks, the daily catch would be 40,000 grasshop- 

 pers. At this rate these hawks would destroy 280,000 grasshoppers in 

 a week and 1,200,000 in a month. I have no means of knowing how 

 long the hawks remained in the neighborhood of Pendleton, but was 

 told that they had been there before our visit. When in southern 

 California about a month later I was told by Mr. Edward Merriam 

 that on three occasions he had noticed similar gatherings of hawks in 

 San Diego County. Once he saw a flock of several hundred large 

 hawks catching crickets in cracked adobe soil in the San Marcos 

 Valley. At night the hawks came into the live oaks at the head of the 

 valley to rest. He shot one and found its stomach packed full of large 

 black crickets. On two other occasions he saw large flocks of these 

 hawks similarly engaged in catching the same species of crickets. The 

 time was during the latter part of September. 



" Mr. Angel, of San Luis Obispo, Cal., told me that he once saw a large 

 number of large dark-colored hawks flying about over the edge of a 

 prairie fire near Chico, in the Sacramento Valley. The air was full of 

 grasshoppers driven out of the grass by the fire, and the hawks were 

 catching and feeding ujion them. 



"Mr. T. S. Palmer, of Berkeley, Cal., has kindly furnished me with the 

 following interesting communication on a flock of hawks observed by 

 him at Pomona, Cal. : 'While spending the summer of 1887 at Pomona, 

 Los Angeles County, Cal., I was much interested in a " flock" of hawks 

 which remained in the vicinity during the month of August. The fact 

 of their congregating in such numbers may be attributed to two causes : 

 (1) Exceptional abundance of food in a particular spot; and (2) the fact 

 that most of the birds were buteos (B. swawsomv predominating) which 

 were migrating slowly southward. 



" 'Their favorite resort was a sandy spot a mile east of the town, well 

 out in the middle of the valley and quite a distance from the neigh- 

 boring mountains. A single irrigating ditch supplied the only water 

 to be had, and to it all the birds in the vicinity were accustomed to 

 resort to drink. Eocky and dry as the spot was, it was sparsely wooded 

 with sycamores and live oaks, and overgrown with white sage, cacti, 

 elderberry bushes, etc. About the first of the month the hawks became 

 common, and although at times scarcely any could be seen, a day oi 

 two after they would be present in greater numbers than ever before. 

 On the 22d of August I succeeded in getting quite close to the flocks, 

 and counted fourteen hawks circling about together, much in the man- 

 ner of turkey buzzards, and not more than 50 or 75 yards from the 

 ground. Nearly all seemed to be young birds, chiefly Buteo b. calurus 

 and Buteo swainsoni, although there were several which I was unable to 

 identify. All were intently engaged in hunting, and I have Uttle doubt 

 that they were feeding on grasshoppers. 



